Self
Honesty as an Expression of Self-Love
Why we don’t need white lies as much as we thought.
I was lounging in my friend’s living room and, regrettably, politics became the central talking point. The subject is hard to avoid these days as the world feels like it’s on fire. Two wars are raging. An election is looming on the horizon like an angry kraken.
In this case, it was more a monologue than a discussion. First it was, his “abortion is murder rant” as he held up his Christian cross necklace. Then, it was about how the US caused the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. The entire spiel was out of character for him, and everything he said had me biting my tongue. My inner voice begged for someone to change the subject. His wife, reading the room correctly, put her hand on his shoulder and said, “Dinner is almost ready. Let’s get our plates!”
This isn’t a new position for me to be in. I’ve spent my life traveling the country, living in completely different regions and cultures as a military child. Humor was my great unifier, my means of staking a plot in a new social climate. If I could make people smile, I could make a friend. There was no consideration of people’s ideologies, and no holding of grudges over someone’s opposing virtue.
